Logical pluralism has been in vogue since JC Beall and Greg Restall 2006 articulated and defended a new pluralist thesis. Recent criticisms such as Priest 2006a and Field 2009 have suggested that there is a relationship between their type of logical pluralism and the meaning-variance thesis for logic. This is the claim, often associated with Quine 1970, that a change of logic entails a change of meaning. Here we explore the connection between logical pluralism and meaning-variance, both in general and (...) for Beall and Restall's theory specifically. We argue that contrary to what Beall and Restall claim, their type of pluralism is wedded to meaning-variance. We then develop an alternative form of logical pluralism that circumvents at least some forms of meaning-variance. (shrink)

In this paper we consider the theory of predicate logics in which the principle of Bivalence or the principle of Non-Contradiction or both fail. Such logics are partial or paraconsistent or both. We consider sequent calculi for these logics and prove Model Existence. For L4, the most general logic under consideration, we also prove a version of the Craig-Lyndon Interpolation Theorem. The paper shows that many techniques used for classical predicate logic generalise to partial and paraconsistent logics once the right (...) set-up is chosen. Our logic L4 has a semantics that also underlies Belnap’s [4] and is related to the logic of bilattices. L4 is in focus most of the time, but it is also shown how results obtained for L4 can be transferred to several variants. (shrink)

In this paper we study 12 four-valued logics arisen from Belnap's truth and/or knowledge four-valued lattices, with or without constants, by adding one or both or none of two new non-regular operations—classical negation and natural implication. We prove that the secondary connectives of the bilattice four-valued logic with bilattice constants are exactly the regular four-valued operations. Moreover, we prove that its expansion by any non-regular connective (such as, e.g., classical negation or natural implication) is strictly functionally complete. Further, finding axiomatizations (...) of the quasi varieties generated by the 12 logics involved (that prove to be varieties), we find naturell equational axiomatizations of these logics. Finally, applying Pynko's general theory of algebraizable sequential consequence operations, we also find equivalent natural sequentiell axiomatizations of the logics under consideration that expand either of two Pynko's sequential calculi for the constant-free truth-lattice four-valued logic. (shrink)

In this paper we introduce a Gentzen calculus for (a functionally complete variant of) Belnap's logic in which establishing the provability of a sequent in general requires \emph{two} proof trees, one establishing that whenever all premises are true some conclusion is true and one that guarantees the falsity of at least one premise if all conclusions are false. The calculus can also be put to use in proving that one statement \emph{necessarily approximates} another, where necessary approximation is a natural dual (...) of entailment. The calculus, and its tableau variant, not only capture the classical connectives, but also the `information' connectives of four-valued Belnap logics. This answers a question by Avron. (shrink)

Kleene’s strong three-valued logic extends naturally to a four-valued logic proposed by Belnap. We introduce a guard connective into Belnap’s logic and consider a few of its properties. Then we show that by using it four-valued analogs of Kleene’s weak three-valued logic, and the asymmetric logic of Lisp are also available. We propose an extension of these ideas to the family of distributive bilattices. Finally we show that for bilinear bilattices the extensions do not produce any new equivalences.

One of the problems we face in many-valued logic is the difficulty of capturing the intuitive meaning of the connectives introduced through truth tables. At the same time, however, some logics have nice ways to capture the intended meaning of connectives easily, such as four-valued logic studied by Belnap and Dunn. Inspired by Dunn’s discovery, we first describe a mechanical procedure, in expansions of Belnap-Dunn logic, to obtain truth conditions in terms of the behavior of the Truth and the False, (...) which gives us intuitive readings of connectives, out of truth tables. Then, we revisit the notion of functional completeness, which is one of the key notions in many-valued logic, in view of Dunn’s idea. More concretely, we introduce a generalized notion of functional completeness which naturally arises in the spirit of Dunn’s idea, and prove some fundamental results corresponding to the classical results proved by Post and Słupecki. (shrink)

The notion of bilattice was introduced by Ginsberg, and further examined by Fitting, as a general framework for many applications. In the present paper we develop proof systems, which correspond to bilattices in an essential way. For this goal we introduce the notion of logical bilattices. We also show how they can be used for efficient inferences from possibly inconsistent data. For this we incorporate certain ideas of Kifer and Lozinskii, which happen to suit well the context of our work. (...) The outcome are paraconsistent logics with a lot of desirable properties.1. (shrink)

This paper contains some contributions to the study of Belnap's four-valued logic from an algebraic point of view. We introduce a finite Hilbert-style axiomatization of this logic, along with its well-known semantical presentation, and a Gentzen calculus that slightly differs from the usual one in that it is closer to Anderson and Belnap's formalization of their “logic of first-degree entailments”. We prove several Completeness Theorems and reduce every formula to an equivalent normal form. The Hilbert-style presentation allows us to characterize (...) the Leibniz congruence of the matrix models of the logic, and to find that the class of algebraic reducts of its reduced matrices is strictly smaller than the variety of De Morgan lattices. This means that the links between the logic and this class of algebras cannot be fully explained in terms of matrices, as in more classical logics. It is through the use of abstract logics as models that we are able to confirm that De Morgan lattices are indeed the algebraic counterpart of Belnap's logic, in the sense of Font and Jansana's recent theory of full models for sentential logics. Among other characterizations, we prove that its full models are those abstract logics that are finitary, do not have theorems, and satisfy the metalogical properties of Conjunction, Disjunction, Double Negation, and Weak Contraposition. As a consequence, we find that the Gentzen calculus presented at the beginning is strongly adequate for Belnap's logic and is algebraizable in the sense of Rebagliato and Verdú, having the variety of De Morgan lattices as its equivalent algebraic semantics. (shrink)

A curious feature of Belnap’s “useful four-valued logic”, also known as first-degree entailment (FDE), is that the overdetermined value B (both true and false) is treated as a designated value. Although there are good theoretical reasons for this, it seems prima facie more plausible to have only one of the four values designated, namely T (exactly true). This paper follows this route and investigates the resulting logic, which we call Exactly True Logic.

This book radically simplifies Montague Semantics and generalizes the theory by basing it on a partial higher order logic. The resulting theory is a synthesis of Montague Semantics and Situation Semantics. In the late sixties Richard Montague developed the revolutionary idea that we can understand the concept of meaning in ordinary languages much in the same way as we understand the semantics of logical languages. Unfortunately, however, he formalized his idea in an unnecessarily complex way - two outstanding researchers in (...) the field even compared his work to a `Rube Goldberg machine.' Muskens' work does away with such unnecessary complexities, obtains a streamlined version of the theory, shows how partialising the theory automatically provides us with the most central concepts of Situation Semantics, and offers a simple logical treatment of propositional attitude verbs, perception verbs and proper names. (shrink)

This paper contains some contributions to the study of Belnap's four-valued logic from an algebraic point of view. We introduce a finite Hilbert-style axiomatization of this logic, along with its well-known semantical presentation, and a Gentzen calculus that slightly differs from the usual one in that it is closer to Anderson and Belnap's formalization of their “logic of first-degree entailments”. We prove several Completeness Theorems and reduce every formula to an equivalent normal form. The Hilbert-style presentation allows us to characterize (...) the Leibniz congruence of the matrix models of the logic, and to find that the class of algebraic reducts of its reduced matrices is strictly smaller than the variety of De Morgan lattices. This means that the links between the logic and this class of algebras cannot be fully explained in terms of matrices, as in more classical logics. It is through the use of abstract logics as models that we are able to confirm that De Morgan lattices are indeed the algebraic counterpart of Belnap's logic, in the sense of Font and Jansana's recent theory of full models for sentential logics. Among other characterizations, we prove that its full models are those abstract logics that are finitary, do not have theorems, and satisfy the metalogical properties of Conjunction, Disjunction, Double Negation, and Weak Contraposition. As a consequence, we find that the Gentzen calculus presented at the beginning is strongly adequate for Belnap's logic and is algebraizable in the sense of Rebagliato and Verdú, having the variety of De Morgan lattices as its equivalent algebraic semantics. (shrink)